Today I received a bill from Newport City Manager Jane Howington for $1,018.65.
Let me back up. I am a member of the Newport City Council. I am in my first term, and I have a lot of questions. As a lawyer, some of the city's decisions have seemed quite peculiar, and the city manager did not possess the background to understand or explain them.
And so I asked (politely) for primary documents, like old contracts, and accounting entries.
Initially, the City Manager simply would not produce them. I waited for weeks and months, and got no response. I don't know why she chose to ignore or obstruct my very simple requests - perhaps it was at the direction of council leadership, or perhaps it was just passive resistance to change. Either way, it was not acceptable.
But rather than quarrel, I filed a FOIA/APRA request. It was great. I received my documents within 10 days. It was certainly an unusual way for a city councilor to request information, but it was the only way this city manager ever responded to me - after I opposed her request for a tax hike on the taxpayers and opposed a pay raise for herself.
These FOIA responses have been incredibly helpful. They help develop my understanding of past decisions, and gave me a much better understanding of options available with respect to various contracts and financial issues.
For example, my request for Sister City records showed me how much time and money is spent to pay for the foreign travel expenses of certain council members. But more importantly, it showed me how the city takes $30,000 from the annual rental payment from the Newport & Bristol Convention & Visitor's Bureau, and deposits it, not into the city's general fund where it would benefit all taxpayers, but into an off-the-books slush fund to pay for travel to Japan, Italy and Ireland by city council members. There was a time when there WAS a sister city gift from the NBCCVB, but that time has long passed. The newest lease makes this perfectly clear, as the entire $40,000 sum is identified as rent in the lease. But the council chooses to pretend that the money is intended as a "gift" - which is dumb, because even the slush fund deposits are labeled as "rent payment." Unfortunately, no one else on the council wanted to fix this problem when I pointed it out.
The FOIA process is also how I learned about the Newport Yacht Club lease which was supposed to be reviewed every ten years to make sure that the yacht club is paying 5% of the assessed value of the property in rent. 2013 was just such a year. And it turned out they were paying only 2% of assessed value. I thought that once this was made clear to everyone, we could fix it. What I didn't know was that the Newport Yacht Club had designated Jack Ellis as the negotiator, and that he was Councilor Harry Winthrop's brother in law; and I didn't know that Councilor Naomi Neville and/or her husband were yacht club members. Regardless, no one else on the city council wanted to fix this issue, and so the rent will continue to be 2% for the next 10 years.
And FOIA is also the process which helped me to understand the violent crime problem faced by the city. I was terribly disappointed to see how the violent crime rate is concentrated in and around our subsidized housing projects. This is a community which deserves better, and I'm hoping we can increase the police budget to provide the manning to address this issue.
Unfortunately, the information I have requested is only available at a cost. Asking about the Sister City program and the Newport Yacht Club will cost me about $650 - personally. And asking about the violent crimes committed will cost me about $350 - personally. Although, I don't quite understand how it took someone in that office a total of three (3) 8-hour days to print out the crime reports submitted to the FBI.
Regardless, the city manager's bill is remarkably petty.
The fact is that Jane should have given me the data the moment I asked. When she refused, I felt that my only choice was to request it in a manner which may not be ignored - FOIA/APRA.
Well, I got my answers. But now I am being punished by the City Manager for asking questions in the form of a $1,018.65 bill. (That's more than 1/2 my council salary!)
And she says that I'm the bully . . .
If you agree that this bill is inappropriate, send her an email and let her know: jhowington@cityofnewport.com. And if you think I should just shut up and pay it, then let me know that too: farleyfornewport@gmail.com.
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